• Mugabe Not Invited To Commonwealth Summit
• Zimbabwe judge quits newspaper appeal case
• Judge hearing Daily News case probed: report
• 'We must guard Zim internet'
• The Knights of the Free Lunch
• Unions Bruised As Formal Economy Shrinks
• Utete Land Report: the Details
• Oil Companies Face Transport Problems
• State to Introduce Tighter Measures to Curb Forex Leaks
• Zimbabwe – a negative object lesson in democracy

      Copyright © 2003, Dow Jones Newswires

      OTA, Nigeria (AP)--Closing ranks against Zimbabwe's leader, Nigerian
President Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday that President Robert Mugabe won't
be invited to next month's British Commonwealth summit here.

      Mugabe has said he expects to attend, raising the threat of a boycott
by Queen Elizabeth II and by prime ministers of the U.K., Australia, Canada,
New Zealand and Pacific nations.

      The summit is Dec. 5-8 in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

      "He will not have an invitation," Obasanjo told foreign reporters
Tuesday, speaking at his farm north of Lagos.

      "He can come on a bilateral basis, but not during" the summit,
Obasanjo said.

      Obasanjo also said he hoped conflict over Mugabe wouldn't overshadow
other issues at the summit.

      Zimbabwe was suspended by the Commonwealth after Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002.

      Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon and Australian Prime
Minister John Howard have repeatedly criticized Mugabe for human rights
violations in Zimbabwe. They also have called for a restoration of the rule
of law before the suspension could be lifted.

      Some members of the 54-nation Commonwealth have warned Mugabe's
presence could split the organization.

      (END) Dow Jones Newswires

      November 25, 2003 08:42 ET (13:42 GMT)

Harare - International media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) on
Monday urged the Zimbabwean authorities to drop charges against 14 people
arrested for circulating an e-mail message calling for President Robert
Mugabe's ouster.

"Robert Mugabe has already gagged the traditional news media and we must now
speak out so that the internet does not meet the same fate," the group said
in a statement received in Harare.

Last week 14 people appeared in a Harare court charged with circulating an
e-mail calling for "violent demonstrations and strikes to push Robert Mugabe
out of office".

They were released on bail but ordered back to court on November 26.

State media said the controversial message circulated by the group also
complained about the country's economic problems including high taxes, high
inflation and high unemployment.

It also attacked Mugabe and undermined his office, reports said.

Insulting the president or undermining his authority are criminal offences
under strict security laws brought in last year.

The Paris-based media watchdog said in its statement that using the internet
to distribute information was a right that "must not be denied" the
opposition in Zimbabwe.

The Knights of the Free Lunch

By Michael Hartnack

While Zimbabwe slumps into an ever more parlous state, Robert Mugabe is
enjoying his latest game: teasing Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as,
with the aid of South Africa, he attempts to wangle an invitation to the
December 5-8 Commonwealth summit in Nigeria. Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai emerged grim-faced and silent from a meeting in Harare with
Obasanjo Nov. 17. The state-run Herald, in a column written with the
authority of a Mugabe Cabinet minister, mocked Obasanjo as "an undertaker"
who had dug his diplomatic grave by failing to join South African President
Thabo Mbeki in insisting that Mugabe be invited to the summit. The Herald
said Mugabe had enjoyed "playfully shadow boxing" with Obasanjo who had gone
too far trying to placate the "white racists" in the 54-nation grouping, at
the expense of African solidarity. Mugabe says he has "no case to answer at
all" for rigging the March 2002 presidential elections and is thus entitled
to attend. If he arrives, the organization faces a damaging split. Observers
here summarise Obasanjo's problem thus: he wanted to get Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to accept an interim government of national unity as a first step
to getting Zimbabwe back into the international community and addressing the
economic catastrophe that threatens to turn into a full-scale famine. For
Mugabe, the sticking point is the word "interim". For Tsvangirai it is
"unity.’’ Mugabe would be happy to co-opt a few members of Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic Change into a coalition on his own terms, as he did
Joshua Nkomo's Zapu in 1987-88. In return for grandiose titles and lucrative
perks - a place at the Mugabe "free lunch" table - the MDC leadership should
forget being spokesman for popular grievances. Tsvangirai, however, cannot
accept unity while fundamentals remain unchanged on the economy and, most
crucially, on democratic human rights.

The parlous state of civil liberties was reflected by the arrest of 14
Zimbabweans earlier this month for circulating an e-mail calling for
protests. This was the first prosecution of its kind, although wise
subscribers have known for years that some electronic communications were
closely monitored. The parlous state of laws and courts was shown by the
latest Supreme Court judgement that human rights' lawyers have no inherent
right to see 20-year old reports on state-sponsored violence in
Matabeleland, that Mugabe has chosen to keep secret. The parlous state of
the economy was reflected by the budget presented to Parliament Nov. 20.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa used all the expected flowery phrases about
bringing down world-record inflation and restoring prosperity. Yet all
Murerwa's figures for the gross national product, income, expenditure,
showed increase by a factor of six. In other words, behind the rhetoric is a
conservative expectation inflation will average at least 600 percent in
2004. The shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation, voted Zimbabwe $5
billion in last year's estimates, gets $62 billion in order to snoop on our
e mails and do all the other things human rights activists have vainly
denounced over the past four blood-soaked years. Gideon Gono, newly
appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank, is to make a statement on interest
rates and foreign currency in the next few weeks but the way was pointed by
Murerwa. "Government, through the Reserve Bank, has put in place
institutional structures and implementation modalities to mobilise foreign
currency from non-resident Zimbabweans through the formal financial system.
Plans for implementation are at an advanced stage and will be disclosed in
the governor's statement." What this verbiage means is that Mugabe wants to
milk foreign currency sent home to (literally) starving relatives by the 3
million Zimbabweans driven into economic exile in South Africa, Britain,
Botswana, Australia, Canada and elsewhere. Forcing the recipients in
Zimbabwe to change their money at an unrealistic rate will be, in effect, a
form of concealed supertax at 80 - 90 cents in the dollar.

Having chewed up commerce, industry, tourism, and 5 000 white-owned farms,
Mugabe's regime has now turned to the foreign exchange market as a further
source of "free lunch" patronage. A privileged few crony bankers are allowed
to buy foreign currency at the official rate - US$1 to Z$824 or R1 to Z$125.
Everyone else (including exporters) buys foreign currency at the parallel or
informal rate US$1 to Zimbabwe $6 000 or R1 to Zimbabwe $700, but sell their
received income to the regime at the official rate. This is why, in
practical terms, a bottle of Marmite costs Z$34 000 (the minimum wage for a
gardener for a month). The shop has to buy foreign currency to import it at
Z$700-R1, buying the currency on the black market and adding a 100 percent
mark up for the risk they are taking. But if the gardener is sent R20 by a
relative working for the Marmite factory in Durban, he is supposed to sell
it on the formal market for Z$2 500. Somebody chosen by Mugabe’s Zanu PF
gets a free lunch of over Z$11 000 - something more than a Marmite sandwich.
There is no hope of reversing this criminal lunacy over inflation and the
exchange rate until production and exports get going again. Up to half
Zimbabwe’s productive capacity has been wiped out in five years of
disastrous Mugabe policies, subjecting economic reality to short-term
political expediency. It’s known as deindustralization. For example, it is
no longer economic to produce the traditional money-spinners, tobacco and
gold, and they are going the way of the once thriving textile industry.
Producers cannot get the imported inputs and many of the most efficient were
hounded out of business on grounds of colour. Zimbabwe needs help from the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and from international
donors and investors. It needs a mountain of unserviced debt to be
rescheduled, and fresh loans. No international body will touch Zimbabwe with
a bargepole under the present regime. Murerwa called this "sanctions". The
message from the budget, as from the Obasanjo talks, is clear: King Robert
and his Knights of the Free Lunch Table plan to continue their lifelong
quest. Meanwhile, UN agencies warn 5,5 million Zimbabweans are in danger of
starving to death before the next harvests in March.

Business Day (Johannesburg)

November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25, 2003

Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

Brutal state repression has harmed organised labour

AFTER its antigovernment protests over the economic crisis and repression
were suppressed by police last week, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
was left badly bruised and weakened.

Heavily armed riot police ruthlessly descended on the labour movement across
the country and crushed its protests.

Union leaders and civic society activists were arrested and more than 350
activists have been detained.

Those arrested included the union's president Lovemore Matombo,
vice-president Lucia Matibenga, secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe,
National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku, University of
Zimbabwe's Prof Brian Raftopoulos, and his colleague John Makumbe, who is
also chairman of Transparency International-Zimbabwe.

Combined Harare Residents Association chairman Mike Davies and Andrew Moyse
of the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe were also arrested under the
repressive Public Order & Security Act.

A police crackdown last month broke the labour movement's fulcrum and left
it seriously emasculated.

In February, unions also bungled demonstrations, only to be rescued by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) the following month. The MDC
also held a five-day rolling mass action in June that brought the country to
a grinding halt.

While police repression has pulverised strikes in Zimbabwe, it is also
increasingly becoming clear that Zimbabwe's oncepowerful labour movement is
losing clout as the formal sector of the economy continues to shrink.

Last week's abortive industrial action left the formerly militant unions
severely weakened and many of Zimbabwe's workers browbeaten.

But Matombo says the unions have not been weakened after the failed strike,
but are "actually reinvigorated and hardened" by police brutality.

He says it is incorrect to say the labour movement is no longer effective
because "what is happening is that we are now faced with a Herculean task
which we have done very well to execute".

Despite Matombo's denial, the union's power has been rapidly declining over
the years due to a shrinking economy.

An independent study on labour activism done last year says Zimbabwe's
formal sector of the economy, which accounts for about a fifth of the
potential labour force, is contracting at an alarming rate. The research
says most of Zimbabwe's 6- million potential workers half the country's
population are either employed in the informal sector of the economy or
unemployed.

It indicates that the unions' support and power has been waning due to
company closures, liquidations, scaling down of operations and
retrenchments.

It also says trade unionism in Zimbabwe is withering due to a
antitrade-unionist laws.

The Herald (Harare)

November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25, 2003

Harare

This is the twenty-fourth part in a series of articles on the details of the
land report presented to President Mugabe by the Presidential Land Review
Committee chaired by Dr Charles Utete.

iv. Government should create an enabling environment for investment by the
private sector and institute credit policies that encourage borrowing for
irrigation development by farmers.

v. Irrigation water pricing policy should be formulated through a
participatory approach and water-pricing formulae should be worked out in
consultation with the users. However the levying of charges on water use
from private boreholes, small dams and weirs should be stopped because it
discourages investment in water resource development and the enhancement of
production on farms through irrigation.

vi. In line with a recommendation already made in this report, irrigation
planning, design, construction, maintenance of infrastructure, management,
and allied activities comprising on-farm water management, should be the
responsibility of the ministry responsible for Agriculture.

vii. Smallholder irrigation is a specialised undertaking which, to realise
its full potential, must be supported by specialist services in agronomy,
crop husbandry, business management, marketing, post harvest handling, water
management and irrigation engineering.

viii. Farmer participation should be encouraged in all development phases,
from the very beginning of planning and designing, through to
implementation, management and evaluation of the irrigation systems.

ix. Training of farmers in water management, irrigated crop production,
marketing as well as general management and operation and maintenance are
pre-requisites for scheme viability under farmer management.

General Issues Relating to Water

and Water Quality

i. Environmental Quality Information System (EQUIS), a new system of
determining the chemistry, geology and limnology of water could be adopted
as a means of assessing potable water quality at house-hold, village, town
and city levels. The system assesses water quality in wells, boreholes,
rivers (recording the state of running water in canals, rivers and steams
using telemetric technology or even satellites via geographical information
systems (GIS).

ii. Each house in rural homes, villages, towns and cities should where
possible have gutters installed, and water tanks constructed for water
harvesting and storage.

iii. Efforts could also be made to capture water from the rock croppings,
hills and into reservoirs to generate hydroelectric power or for domestic
use and irrigation.

iv. Small dams should be constructed on tributaries of medium to large-scale
rivers into which to pump floodwater, which would normally be lost to the
sea.

v. As each dam is built, efforts should be made to add a hydro-electric
installation to generate power for the local community.

vi. Water polluters should be penalised as a matter of policy and principle.

12. Plantations, Forests, Safaris and Conservancies

Safaris/Conservancies

With the promulgation of the 1975 Wildlife Act, farmers and ranchers on
private land became increasingly aware of the financial value of their
wildlife resources. This has taken the form of sport hunting and
non-consumptive tourism, with the latter being more significant on certain
private properties.

Wildlife ranching and tourism in Zimbabwe has grown steadily over the years.
The comparative advantage of wildlife lies primarily with its aesthetic
value rather than in the production of meat. Since the late 1980s, Zimbabwe
has become a major destination for sport hunters and wildlife tourists.

Tourism and sport hunting on state land is managed by National Parks and
forms the core of the land allocated to wildlife-based tourism in Zimbabwe.
In 1991 it was estimated that 30% of total sport hunting revenue was earned
from state land. In 1998 and 1999 this sector grossed US$21 million.

On communal land, the main formal use of wildlife is through sport hunting
in districts with appropriate hunting authority. The revenue earned in 1998
by rural District Councils was US$1.8 million.

Fast Track, Safaris and Conservancies

Under Fast Track, emphasis has tended to be placed on the use of land for
crops and livestock, with not much attention being paid to wildlife
production as a legitimate land use option on newly settled farms. Yet in
many regions of Zimbabwe poor rainfall and other agro-ecological conditions
severely constrain crop production. In those regions and even in some higher
rainfalls areas alternative land uses based on sustainable use of wildlife
have proven to be successful and profitable in the past.

Recommendations

a) Wildlife based land reform policy must be developed and used to guide
settlements in those areas where wildlife is the most appropriate land use
option.

b) Government should consider devising a financial package to enable new
settlers to buy machinery and other requirements critical for a successful
wildlife operation.

c) Allocation of a game ranch or part of a conservancy must be preceded by
technical proposals to be evaluated by a competent authority.

d) Technical support including the provision of animals must be extended to
new settlers who are expected to observe land use stricture for the area.

e) Some wildlife farms including those that constitute conservancies must be
acquired and designated as core wildlife production zones to be offered on
lease basis to approved Zimbabwean and foreign applicants.

f) Resolute action needs to be taken to stem poaching, and illegal
settlements in parks estates and stiffer penalties comparable to those now
encompassed under the amended Stock Theft Act should be enforced.

g) Government should seriously consider enacting a law requiring that
conservancies of safaris be run on corporate basis.

Indigenous And Plantation Forests

Indigenous Forests

The Forestry Company owns and manages some 800 000 ha of gazetted or
demarcated indigenous forests in western Zimbabwean on behalf of government.
The forests are located on the ecologically fragile Kalahari sands which are
characterised by low and erratic rainfall. The forests areas were gazetted
for purposes of catchment conservation; protection of important commercial
indigenous timber species only found on Kalahari sands; and the conservation
and sustainable management of the resident wild flora and fauna.

According to the Forest Act , no people should reside in them without
authority. Hence any persons and their livestock occupying such forest area
as Gwaai/Bembesi, Umguza/Insiza, Chesa, Gwampa/ Lake Alice, Ngamo, Kavira
and Mzola - as has been reported in the past - should be accommodated
elsewhere or provision made to enable them to utilise some aspects of the
forest resource under proper management.

Plantation Forests

Zimbabwe has a well-developed exotic plantation forest resource base on some
119 000 ha of land. Some 62% of the planted area belongs to private
companies and individuals while the remainder is owned by the state through
the Forest Company, the state forest authority.

The exotic plantation forestry industry is mostly vertically integrated into
timber production, processing, packaging and marketing in order to increase
returns from a high volume and low value product. The industry has invested
considerable in plantation development, saw milling and value addition over
the last decade.

However, the proposal to divide some of the plantation forests into small
farms of about 250 hectares form to be allocated to individuals will almost
certainly prove unviable.

Given the high level of vertical integration, the long gestation period and
the contribution to the national economy of the exotic plantation forestry
industry, it is recommended that land in this category should be maintained
in the current state without any fragmentation.

It is further recommended that the shareholding structure of the existing
timber production companies should be broadened to include indigenous
people. Smallholder out-grower schemes should be promoted in order to
increase the forest resource base.

13. The role of the Private Sector, Including Agro-Industrial Concerns, in
Agriculture

1. Private business concerns are deeply enmeshed in the agrarian sector in
Zimbabwe's economy. From primary commodity production and processing to
infrastructural development, equipment and machinery manufacturing, input
provision and marketing and increasingly - contract farming activities, that
role looms large.

2. The range of activities is thus diverse, covering food crops but also the
production, processing and marketing of commercial commodities such as
tobacco, paprika and cotton.

3. In addition to the above, private business organisations take on such
other activities as transport, storage and distribution of agricultural
commodities and related inputs.

4. However, crucial to the success of the Land Reform Programme in the
medium to long term is the need for genuine partnership and collaboration
between the private and public sectors in the areas indicated below:

5 Research and Development

Research into and production of agricultural inputs, machinery and equipment
is expensive. This calls for private sector interaction with the public
sector institutions such as the Scientific and Industrial Research and
Development Centre (SIRDC) and the Agricultural Research Council and
Universities to develop local Research and Development (R & D)

6 Transport and Storage

Transport and storage are vital services to the farmer if his goods are to
be competitive at the market. However, provision of the two is also
dependent on good infrastructure of roads and communications.

7 Irrigation Development

It is recommended that Government provide incentives to encourage research
into making irrigation technology cheaper and therefore accessible to the
majority of farmers. Israel has developed advanced irrigation methods, which
have boosted agricultural production.

8 Processing of Produce and Value Addition

Processing of produce and value addition is essential in that the country
will be able to earn higher returns on exports, as well as creating job
opportunities. Further, the establishment of rural growth points will entice
agro-processors to provide processing facilities in situ.

9.

Contract Production

Contract production of both domestic and export products should be
encouraged. These tap into the resources of the private sector requiring
produce. Some tobacco producing countries, like Brazil have developed this
practice to good effect.

10 Marketing and Distribution

Marketing and Distribution underpin the production chain. Production is
valueless if it is has no market and ability to reach the market. Market
intelligence, knowledge of the quality and packaging requirements of a
market are key tools to successful production.

Recommendations

l The private sector agro-business should be encouraged to participate fully
in agricultural enterprises at all levels.

l Consideration should be given to the granting of tax concessions to
companies for research expenses or where commitment has been made to
undertake such research.

l Given the objective of creating skilled farmers among Zimbabweans,
Government should put in place a regulatory framework for contract farming.
This should be structured in such a way that it proscribes the current
practice of business entitled carrying out all farming activities on behalf
of some beneficiaries of the Land Reform Programme.

l Given that transport and communication services are vital for the farming
sector, Government should encouraged private investment in the development
of these networks. In this regard, the proposed rail concessionaires could
be one such method.

l As part of measure to boost the livestock sector, Government should
encourage investment in the production of affordable vaccines vital for
disease control. The quality of livestock is dependent on the pedigree base
of livestock, which is only possible through stringent disease control
measures.

l The establishment of farm equipment hire companies based at rural service
centres should be encouraged to mitigate the lack of such equipment amongst
some of the A1 and A2 farmers who do not own equipment.

l The rural trader, who has capacity, should be assisted to provide dealer
depots for agro-chemicals, machinery and equipment. Bigger business entities
should work in partnership with the rural trader and not compete for
business in these areas.

l Agro-processing companies should be encouraged to promote out grower
schemes in their areas of operation.

14 Skills, Training and Extension Services

1.0 Introduction

1.1 The Fast Track process has been successful in distributing land to the
needy. The major challenge that confronts the nation is to make the
resettled land productive. This, is at least in part achievable provided
appropriate skills and knowledge are l From Page 9

imparted to the new farmer. This calls for the revamping of the research and
extension systems. It has been established that the new farmers posses
varying levels of skills endowment. However, the need for further training
has been established with a view of enabling the farmers to:

i) Utilise the land, capital and labour effectively and efficiently;

ii) Develop the ability , given the input resources available to them, to
choose the enterprises that will profit most by using the technique of farm
budgeting and record keeping,

iii) Pass on acquired skills and information to fellow neighbouring farmers
simply by demonstrating good crop and animal husbandry practices.

iv) To be self-reliant by seeking information by themselves, for example,
input requirements, producer prices and other technical information without
depending entirely on extension agents.

2.0 Research and Extension Capacity

2.1 Research and extension institutions exist in Zimbabwe with various
capacities. There are four public institutions that are currently
responsible for research and extension. These are The Department of
Agricultural Research and Extension; the Department of Agricultural
Engineering; the Department of Veterinary Services and the Department of
Livestock Production and Development. Complementing their activities are
other public and private institutions such as, universities and farmer
organisations. Given the increased number of new farmers requiring the
services of these institutions, there is need for the Government to
streamline their functions with a view to making them responsive to the
needs of the expanded farmer base.

3.0 Recommendations

3.1 In order to enhance the productive capacity of the new farmers the
Committee recommends that Government does the following:

Short-term measures

(a) Accelerate the process of deploying extension workers to the recently
established farming communities arising from the Fast Track Land Reform
Programme. Research and experience have demonstrated that extension agents
are more effective when they live within farming communities.

(b) Identify specialised skills among former farm workers and initiate a
programme of certification of the skills they possess, to build a database
accessible to the new farmer.

(c) Establish mechanisms, which encourage farmer-to-farmer training at farm
level, for example, through tours of arms that are doing well in the
neighbourhood. This could be complemented by training activities such as,
field days, trials and demonstrations, farmer groups and competitions.

(d) Build village libraries and ward information kiosks for purposes of
information dissemination and equip them with appropriate and timely
information collated for the local farmer (see Charter 9 (vii) above)

Long-term measures

(e) The old and tried approaches of imparting skills and knowledge which had
proved successful could be resuscitated such as the master farmer training
and certification and on-farm training for communities.

(f) The need to build more Kushinga-Phikelela-type institutions in the rest
of the Provinces offering short and specialised courses for farmers is
vital.

(g) A curriculum with agricultural skills training component should be
designed for schools. Basic skills on crop and livestock production could be
imparted to local communities through the same school facilities; i.e.
schools could become sites for refresher courses or field days for farmers
in the local community.

(h) It is also recommended that a system that regularly collects and
collates accurate national, provincial and district data and information on
farmer skills and training needs and requirements be instituted into
strategic skills planning.

15. The Agrarian Reform and the Protection Of the Environment

1. While the Fast Track land resettlement brought long awaited land to the
people of Zimbabwe, its long-term sustainability will depend on measures
taken to protect the land and its natural resources. Without such measures,
deforestation, soil erosion, land degradation and siltation would occur
unhindered, rendering future economic development unsustainable.

2. Land use practices must be both ecologically sustainable and economically
viable as determined by prior suitability assessments, having regard to the
three main land use systems of cropping, forestry and wildlife ranching.

3. Cropping is the most dominant land use system in suitable agro-ecological
zones and in irrigated areas. There is need to ensure long term
sustainability through good land husbandry practices and other measures
which protect the land from soil erosion, land degradation and siltation.
Sustainability of some high potential agricultural land is under serious
threat as a result of the rampant illegal and unregulated gold panning and
related mining activities, which have led to land degradation and pollution
of water bodies through the release of cyanide, mercury and other poisonous
substances into rivers. Urgent practice steps should be taken to control
these activities.

4. Forests are essential to control erosion, provide energy, building
materials, fencing and fodder. They have also recently come to be recognised
as vital "carbon sinks". Random removal of forests is a recipe for
desertification. In addition, Zimbabwe requires timber plantations for local
use and for foreign currency generation through exports. There is need to
increase the area under timber plantation if the long term national needs
and requirements are to be satisfied.

5. Some farmers in drought prone fragile areas have turned to wildlife as
the best land use option which is ecologically sustainable and most suitable
in semi-arid and arid areas of Natural Regions IV and V. It has been proved
in these areas that the return from wildlife is often much higher than that
from livestock or crop production.

6. Comprehensive policies and programmes are however required to ensure
sustainability in the exploitation of these resources.

Such policy must minimally aim at achieving:

a) Cropping systems that reduce progressively, and eventually eliminate,
soil erosion that results in siltation of rivers, dams and other water
sources. Silted river systems, such as the Save, should be rehabilitated as
a matter of deliberate policy and urgent action.

b) The protection and preservation of indigenous forests found in most parts
of the country and especially in Matabeleland North and the Midlands
Provinces, and the properly administered exploitation of the exotic timber
plantations of Manicaland, are matters of great national importance. It
should also be noted in regard to the latter that the timber industry is
vertically integrated in terms of production, processing, packaging and
marketing. It employs some 16 000 people. The industry accounts for 35 of
the GDP.

The area earmarked for exotic timber is approximately 155 353 hectares with
110 000 hectares planted. Some 42% of the plantations belong to the State,
54% to private companies, mainly the Wattle Company of Zimbabwe and Board
timbers, and the remainder to private growers including co-operatives. The
Ministry of Environment and Tourism advises that if the plantation area is
not expanded the available timber resources will in a few years not be able
to satisfy the country's timber processing capacity. This would mean that
Zimbabwe would need to import from other counties.

c) The formulation of policies on game ranching and wildlife conservancies
or sanctuaries aiming to achieve equity and adequate financial benefits for
both local communities and the country as a whole should be a priority.

7. What is required, essentially, is a Master Plan for environmental
protection that is actionable and that engages all interested parties as
regards its formulation, execution, oversight and review. Aspects of the
Plan would obviously call for engagement of neighbouring countries as
already demonstrated by the Gonarezhou-Kruger-Gaza Transfrontier Park.

Funding Mechanisms

1.0 Background

1.1 Agricultural finance - short, medium and long term, is an essential
prerequisite for any farming venture. Formal financing of agriculture has
occurred in Zimbabwe since the beginning of the colonial era. Land was held
under freehold or leasehold security. Since Independence Government has
often guaranteed loans for communal farmers directly or through the old
Agricultural Finance Corporation.

1.2 The challenge facing the agricultural finance delivery sector in the
aftermath of the Fast Track is the creation of financing schemes that cover
a whole range of new players in the agricultural sector. Government is
currently providing the bulk of agricultural sector. Government is currently
providing the bulk of agricultural finance through various schemes. These
include input support schemes, the irrigation support schemes tillage
programme and the raising of finance through agro-bills. These schemes are
currently responsible for the core of the agricultural production in the
country. However, they have encountered such problems as lack of close
liaison between institutions and inadequate resources.

1.3 The private sector has also been involved in agricultural finance
through direct financing by banks, input support schemes, contract farming
and agro-processor financing. Nonetheless, the need for agricultural finance
is much greater than ever before. There is need for collaboration between
Government and the private sector, to finance agricultural activities.

2.0 Recom-mendations

In order to enhance agricultural production the committee recommends that:

(a) The setting up of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) be effected as
soon as practicable. The success of the land reform programme will, among
other things, depend on the provision of adequate capital.

All existing Government credit schemes should be collapsed in the ADB;

(b) The ADB should give emphasis to financing A1 and communal farmers. The
ADB will in addition be complemented by the other commercial banks in
financing A2 and large-scale commercial farmers;

(c) Low interest finance be availed to farmers in the formative years
particularly for infrastructure development.

As balance sheets strengthen through farmers redeeming their loans, they
should be weaned off to access finance from the commercial sector.

(d) The Ministries of Finance and Lands should work out a co-ordinated
mechanism to finance agriculture;

(e) Government continues to provide inputs to carefully targeted groups. A
new mechanism needs to be put in place to handle the input support scheme;

(f) Agro-processors, marketers and other private sector organisations put up
a revolving fund to assist farmers, given agriculture's contribution to the
various manufacturing processes.This fund could be administered jointly by
the Government and private sector;

(g) The private sector be encouraged to go into contract farming under
arrangements that do not however render farmers into mere rent collectors;

(h) Government should consider the possibility of subsidising at farm level
the production of targeted food and other crops in order to curb excessive
price increases which may be unaffordable to the consumer;

(i) There be targeted production for the export markets;

(j) Government and the private sector should accelerate efforts to find new
markets abroad; and

(k) As already indicated elsewhere in this Report, Government should
spearhead the setting up of farm mechanisation hire services in newly
resettled areas.

The Herald (Harare)

November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25, 2003

Harare

Oil companies are facing serious transport problems to ferry fuel from Beira
into the country, a situation that has pushed up the price of petroleum
products.

The companies are now charging prices ranging between the gazetted $1 980
and $3 500 a litre for petrol, depending on the costs incurred by a
particular company in transporting the fuel.

Representatives of the industry recently met the Minister of Energy and
Power Development Cde Amos Midzi to brief him on the situation.

They requested to use the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe pipeline from
Beira to Harare to transport fuel if they were to cut on transport expenses
and bring in large quantities.

The oil companies use haulage trucks that are costly and unreliable to
transport large quantities of fuel.

Cde Midzi said there was already a policy allowing the companies to use the
pipeline to transport fuel.

"That position was taken long ago and it's up to the companies to discuss
with Noczim on charges," he said.

Cde Midzi confirmed meeting the oil industry representatives and said they
would meet again soon to discuss outstanding problems.

"We met and we agreed they were going to come back indicating how they are
going to meet the market demand for fuel," he said.

"It will be premature to say what exactly came up at the meeting because
they will come back again and we will discuss further."

Petroleum Marketers Association of Zimbabwe chairman Mr Masimba Kambarami
yesterday said the pump price disparities were a result of different
transport costs.

"We met with the minister and discussed ways of stepping up the delivery of
fuel and the main constraint is that we use road haulage," he said.

"The logistics of bringing in fuel by road is not efficient and is costly,
but companies are doing what they can to bring in the commodity."

Mr Kambarami said the shortage of foreign currency remained another threat
to the efficient procurement of fuel by the oil companies.

The Government in August de-regulated the oil industry and introduced a
two-tier pricing system.

Under the new system, Noczim would sell fuel to selected institutions at $1
750 a litre for petrol and $1 650 a litre for diesel.

The public would buy leaded petrol at $1 980 a litre from filling stations,
with diesel costing $1 850 a litre.

The service stations should sell unleaded petrol at $2 600 a litre.

The Government said it would soon set up an independent regulatory
commission to protect motorists against unfair practices by some fuel
importing companies.

The deregulation of the oil industry was meant to improve efficiency in the
procurement of fuel that has intermittently been in short supply since the
end of 1999.

The Herald (Harare)

November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25, 2003

Harare

THE Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Herbert Murerwa, says
Government will next year tighten screws on exchange control regulations to
bridle the continued foreign currency leaks particularly by exporting
companies.

In his 2004 national budget presentation in Harare last week, Dr Murerwa
said there was need to implement acrimonious measures in the current
regulations of foreign exchange to "account for and harness all foreign
currency" due to the country.

"In order to stamp out foreign currency leakage within the country,
appropriate changes will be effected to make exchange control regulations
applicable to all locally registered companies operating in the Export
Processing Zone Authority (EPZA)," Dr Murerwa said.

Zimbabwe is reportedly losing billions of dollars in revenue due to some
exporting companies that are failing to remit foreign exchange earnings to
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as stipulated by the exchange control
regulations.

Under the existing law, exporting firms are compelled to remit at least 50
percent of their foreign earnings and retain the remainder.

Dr Murerwa blasted companies accorded EPZA status for failing to forward to
the central bank the foreign currency earnings.

He said: "Some foreign currency leakage have, evidently, been through
locally registered companies that have been granted EPZA status.

"The companies borrow Zimbabwe dollars and also raise foreign exchange from
the domestic market, but retain 100 percent of their foreign currency
earnings, as they are not subject to exchange statutes."

Dr Murerwa's announcement falls hard on the heels of similar calls by other
stakeholders who have implored the RBZ to implement effective monitoring
mechanisms aimed at sealing foreign currency leaks in the hotel industry.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and
Economic Development, Mr David Chapfika, last month said there was need to
keep track on the use of foreign exchange by some hotels in the country.

He said small hotels had been receiving a surge in occupancies but were not
remitting their foreign earnings.

"There has been a sizeable number of tourists from the region who have been
visiting the country and are staying in three star or less hotels," said Mr
Chapfika.

"The Reserve Bank need to come up with effective devices like those
introduced in other sectors, like hunting, to reconcile the little foreign
currency being earned by these hotels."

Widespread unofficial dealing in foreign exchange involving corporate bodies
and individuals that are siphoning the country of hard cash have become the
order of the day.

It is envisaged that measures put in place to reconcile any foreign earnings
to the country would go a long way in shoring up the country's shrinking
foreign currency reserves.

      THIS morning, after I had been shopping for some bread and milk, I
went to see a family. I was offered a cup of black tea, "Sorry, we have no
milk".

      And I was given a plate of cooked ice, "Sorry, we have no bread". The
small pension of the retired civil servant is worth less and less.

      I am told Harare Central Hospital is in a state of immaculate
cleanliness. All the beds are covered with freshly laundered bed-sheets.

      Nobody is in those beds. There are no patients. Because there are no
doctors. Not even for those who can pay. Let alone for those who cannot pay,
the majority.

      An anaemic woman needs a blood transfusion. Since the doctors are on
strike she will not get one. A child needs surgery for a gross abscess in
her left eye.

      The money has been paid, but there is no doctor to do the op. People
seek help at the local clinic, but there are no medicines.

      If you have no medical insurance and cannot pay vast amounts cash down
at a private hospital you are doomed.

      The well-endowed fly to London for treatment (some of whom come back
in luxury caskets). Everything becomes possible for those who can lay their
hands on that magic medicine called foreign currency.

      All this cries to high heaven. But where are the banner headlines?
Where are the mass protests? Where are the feature programmes on radio and
TV analysing the causes of the breakdown of the health services?

      Instead the big issue in the state media at present is the demand of
government to be invited to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
Abuja in December.

      Who of the countless gravely ill people left to die in Mbare and
elsewhere and their families cares a hoot about yet another trip of the head
of state?

      The political classes, including the heads of state of neighbouring
countries and the continent in general, simply can no longer look at the
Zimbabwean calamity from the people’s perspective.

      They are a closed society very sensitive to one another’s feelings,
but callous towards the "masses" somewhere outside State House and its pomp
and ceremony.

      Didymus Mutasa suggested earlier in the year that Zimbabwe would be
better off with only half its present population of 12 million. Is that now
our secret target? Would that not be conspiracy to commit genocide and mass
murder?

      Zimbabwe teaches the world a negative object lesson in democracy. It
shows what happens to a country without an opposition able to play its
proper role and a free media.

      This week the trade unions tried to stage protest marches. Around 100
leaders were arrested immediately and held in detention for days.

      The state broadcaster is entirely silent about this.

      By giving the people only selected bits of information and suppressing
all opinions other than its own, the regime allows only one interpretation
of current reality to be broadcast.

      Partisan interpretations of reality are never complete. They are
one-sided and simplistic at best, and completely false and misleading at
worst.

      To arrive even at a remotely adequate understanding of our current
political, economic and social reality we need to approach it from different
angles and get as many viewpoints as possible.

      There is more truth in a number of contradictory statements than in
one smooth and logical presentation.

      You want to read more than one newspaper and listen to more than one
radio station to get a full picture.

      Any bright student wants to listen to several professors and compare
their different positions. It is an intellectual disaster if you have to
listen to just one professor as poor Zimbabweans are forced to do.

      "Zimbabwe was raped and robbed by colonialists and it is still being
raped and robbed by neo-colonialists even today. Any failure of the
post-Independence government is due to (neo-)colonialist rape and robbery.
Anyone deviating from this party-line is an agent of (neo-)colonialists."

      If these are the ideological spectacles through which you have to look
at present-day Zimbabwean reality, you are forced to close your eyes to any
fact that does not fit this narrow mould, e.g. the fact that the resources
of this country were robbed not only by out- but also by insiders.

      If Independence has any meaning at all and is more than a propaganda
ploy, then it means exactly this that we have to blame ourselves and not
just the rest of the world for our misery.

      Unless the full truth is allowed to come out in all its complexity and
with all its bewildering contradictions, we are simply out of touch with
reality and no longer able to deal adequately with it. This is the current
Zimbabwean disease.

      Any authoritarian regime, insofar as it suppresses that concert of
different voices which alone brings out the complete truth and allows only
one, its own, voice to be heard, ends up cut off from reality.

      But reality has a nasty way of asserting itself. People ignoring it
collide with it with one almighty bang.

      Nature has a brutal cure for people obsessed with their own glory of
days long gone by and unable to face the future. Death removes them from the
scene, one by one, and relegates them to that mythical world of past heroes
they are so fond of.

      Unless Zimbabweans are given full access to information, to the good
news as well as to the bad, to the news they like and the news they loathe,
they will go on living in fairyland.

      Unless they are getting used to the cut and thrust of a free exchange
of views, at village councils, in parliament or on the market place of the
media, they will not be able to come to grips with the real world.

      Africa was raped and robbed. True. But African elites have also done
an awful lot of raping and robbing themselves and are still doing so.

      Unless you are prepared to accept both these two perspectives, one
more alarming than the other, you will never be able to explain why those
people die prematurely at home rather than being cared for in our health
care institutions.

      By Fr Oskar Wermter SJ